System and Method for Interference Coordination

1. A method for operating an interference coordinating entity (ICE), the method comprising: partitioning, by the ICE, a cloud radio access network (CRAN) cluster by: grouping, according to a partitioning criterion, transmission points (TPs) serving user equipments (UEs) into at least one virtual transmission point (V-TP) to produce a V-TP set, wherein the UEs to be served are preferably offset from a V-TP boundary; adjusting the partitioning criterion; and repeating the partitioning to produce a plurality of V-TP sets; saving, by the ICE, V-TP information to a memory; for each V-TP set, scheduling the UEs that can be served by the TPs for the V-TP set, and determining a merit measurement for the UEs that have been scheduled for the V-TP set; selecting one of the merit measurements to determine a V-TP configuration for the CRAN cluster; and causing, by the ICE, at least one of the TPs to communicate to at least one of the UEs according to parameters of the V-TP configuration.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one V-TP comprises at least one TP.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a V-TP is a basic unit for interference coordination.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein there are a plurality of transmission resources, and wherein partitioning the CRAN cluster, scheduling the UEs, determining the merit measurement, and selecting one of the merit measurements is repeated for each transmission resource.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein each V-TP set comprises a plurality of V-TPs, wherein joint processing occurs within a V-TP with more than one TP.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selected merit measurement is a largest merit measurement.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: partitioning a communications network into at least two CRAN clusters; and performing partitioning the CRAN cluster, scheduling the UEs, determining the merit measurement, and selecting one of the merit measurements for each CRAN cluster.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising partitioning network resources of the communications network into a plurality of disjoint network resource units; and allocating one or more network resource units to each CRAN cluster so that adjacent CRAN clusters are only allocated the same network resource unit if different priority levels are also assigned to the adjacent CRAN clusters.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein partitioning the network resources comprises partitioning frequency network resources into a plurality of disjoint frequency network resource units.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein partitioning the network resources comprises partitioning time network resources into a plurality of disjoint time network resource units.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein partitioning the network resources comprises: partitioning frequency network resources into a plurality of disjoint frequency network resource units; and partitioning time network resources into a plurality of disjoint time network resource units.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the ICE is an interference controller.

13. The method of claim 7 , further comprising specifying a first utilization for boundary UEs operating near a boundary of the CRAN cluster.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising specifying a second utilization for other UEs operating in the CRAN cluster.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the ICE is an interference controller.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ICE is a super node.

17. An interference coordinating entity (ICE) comprising: a processor configured to partition a cloud radio access network (CRAN) cluster by grouping, according to a partitioning criterion, transmission points (TPs) serving user equipments (UEs) into at least one virtual transmission point (V-TP) to produce a V-TP set, wherein the UEs are preferably offset from a V-TP boundary; and a memory operatively coupled to the processor, the memory configured to store V-TP information; and wherein the processor is configured to partition the CRAN cluster into a plurality of V-TP sets, to, for each V-TP set, schedule the UEs that can be served by the TPs for the V-TP set, to, for each V-TP set, determine a merit measurement for the UEs that have been scheduled for the V-TP set, and to select one of the merit measurements to determine a V-TP configuration for the CRAN cluster; and wherein the processor is further configured to cause at least one of the TPs to communicate to at least one of the UEs according to parameters of the V-TP set.

18. The ICE of claim 17 , wherein the processor is configured to select a largest one of the merit measurements.

19. The ICE of claim 17 , wherein the processor is configured to partition a communications network into at least two CRAN clusters, and wherein the processor is configured to, for each CRAN cluster, partition the CRAN cluster, schedule the UEs, determine the merit measurement, and to select the V-TP configuration for each CRAN cluster.

20. The ICE of claim 19 , wherein the processor is configured to partition network resources of the communications network into a plurality of disjoint network resource units, and to allocate one or more network resource units to each CRAN cluster so that adjacent CRAN clusters are only allocated the same network resource unit if different priority levels are also assigned to the adjacent CRAN clusters.

21. The ICE of claim 20 , wherein the ICE is an interference controller.

22. The ICE of claim 19 , further comprising a transmit power setting unit configured to specify a first transmit power level for boundary UEs operating near a boundary of the CRAN cluster, and to specify a second transmit power level for other UEs operating in the CRAN cluster.

23. The ICE of claim 17 , wherein the ICE is a super node.

24. A communications network comprising: a plurality of cloud radio access network (CRAN) clusters, each CRAN cluster including a plurality of transmission points (TPs) configured to serve user equipments (UEs), the plurality of TPs partitioned, according to a partitioning criterion, into a virtual transmission point (V-TP) set of at least one V-TP, wherein the UEs are preferably offset from a V-TP boundary, and wherein each V-TP is a joint processing unit; a first interference coordinating entity (ICE) operatively coupled to a first one of the CRAN clusters, the first ICE configured to partition the first one of the CRAN clusters according to a corresponding V-TP set, and further configured to cause at least one of the TPs to communicate to at least one the UEs according to parameters of the corresponding V-TP set; and a second ICE operatively coupled to a second one of the CRAN clusters, the second ICE configured to partition network resources of the communications network into a plurality of disjoint transmission resource units, and to allocate one or more transmission resource units to each CRAN cluster so that adjacent CRAN clusters are only allocated the same network resource unit if different priority levels are also assigned to the adjacent CRAN clusters.

25. The communications network of claim 24 , wherein the first ICE is a super node.

26. The communications network of claim 24 , wherein the first ICE and the second ICE is a single entity.

27. The communications network of claim 24 , wherein the second ICE is coupled to each CRAN cluster.

28. The communications network of claim 24 , wherein the second ICE is an interference controller.